Just Shoot Me

Posted on October 1, 2011 by April

I am participating in a ” 31 Days of…” series for the month of October. You see a whole bunch of sweet blogger buddies have been getting together the past few years to do 31 posts about a topic that they have a passion for. This year they have invited all of their readers to post 31 days of their passions. The blogger that first introduced me to this series was The Nester, if you are interested in participating in the 31 Days of…series, please visit her site for more information. I hope you enjoy my series on finding treasures both vintage and of the heart. Let’s hope I can overcome my inconsistent blogging habit and share those 31 posts within the next 31 days!

If you are interested in reading what I had to say about vintage and heart treasures, please follow the below links:

Well Read

Got Pot

Mindy the Mendet

Wanna go to the show?

The first day of 31 days, doesn’t it feel like the first day of school? Except there aren’t any new teachers to meet, or awkward seating assignments there’s only the fear of writing 31 posts in 31 days! Although, I’m up for the challenge, especially considering I’ve decided to share 31 days of treasure hunting. No, I’m not talking about buried treasure on some deserted island, this treasure could be vintage treasures found at your local Goodwill or found-already-owned-items that can be re-purposed, or even heart treasures that the Lord has sweetly whispered. The topic of treasures could be too broad for this series, but let’s see where it takes us shall we?

On this first day of 31 days, I’ll share something old…

Can you spot it? Yeah, there’s some old books there that I plan on sharing with you later on, and there’s some ceramic pumpkins from last year, but I wouldn’t call them vintage especially since they came from the dollar store. Give up? Well, O.K. You see that small camera there, on top of the stack of books between the pumpkins? Yep, that’s our first treasure, a 1930’s Kodak movie camera. I bought it at a local thrift store for $1.34 a couple weeks ago. And it still works! At least, something happens when it’s wound up and cranked! It’s missing a lens, and I really don’t know if film can be found for it anymore. But doesn’t it look cool sitting atop my coffee table accessorizing those books?

Here’s a side view…

And a detail shot…

You really can’t see it in the pictures above, but there are settings for different weather conditions like, bright sun on light sand or snow, plain bright sun, hazy sun, open shade in clear sky, and cloudy bright. Pretty high tech for back in the day if you ask me. The whole camera is made of metal and covered in leather, it’s a Kodak and dated 1937-1938. It’s beautifully old and one of my favorite pieces. And all for less than $2! That certainly makes for a treasure in my book.

What have you recently found that made your heart go pitter-patter?

Party Pooped

Posted on September 2, 2011 by April

Finally, the much awaited party post!!! Unfortunately, there aren’t too many pictures of the party itself. As mentioned here Bubba and I were much too busy hosting to snap all those artistic photos I had hoped to capture. You wouldn’t believe the last-minute running around involved in setting up for a little party. Or maybe I’m just an inexperienced hostess with poor time management skills…. Naw, that couldn’t be it!

Anywho, the photos I plan to share with you will be a mix of the few photos I was able to snap. But most have come from my sweet uncle and my Bubba’s brother, who is also very sweet. They did an excellent job of capturing the “essence” of the much planned for party.

It all happened in our little casa’s back yard…

(Wish I had remembered to put my luminarias along the walk way. That would have really dressed things up out there!)

This was the scene before we laid the food out or any of the guests arrived.

All those milk glass vases came from my Goodwill and thrift store collection. I didn’t realize how many I had ~~hoarded~~ collected over the past few months.

I decided to go with a lemon lime theme, so everything was shades of yellow and green citrus-y goodness.

All of the tables had a grouping of my milk glass vases filled with my favorite yellow flowers. In the background of this picture you can see that we used plastic dinnerware. For the next party, I think I will use real dinnerware if possible. It really classes things up, plus a metal fork won’t fly away in the wind like a plastic one will. But, it was nice not having to wash a kazillion pieces of cutlery. In hindsight, those table runners really didn’t work in my breezy backyard either. Things to note for next time…if there is a next time, I had no idea how stressful this little event would be!

In the tree we hung tissue paper pom-poms in shades of yellow, green and white. Along with yellow and white lanterns that looked oh so romantic when lit up.

As the guests walked into my urban oasis, they were greeted by the Wedding Tree, one of my first Etsy finds!

Instead of going with my original plan of the thumb print tree, I decided having the guests sign their names on a leaf would be much less messy than sticking their thumbs onto an ink pad. Plus it saved everyone from worrying about getting finger prints on their pretty clothes. And I still have a sweet memento to hang on my wall and enjoy everyday.

Going with my lemon and lime theme, I found a sweet seller on Etsy to design a tree in yellow and green. Can you believe I ordered the Wedding Tree the morning before the party, and that evening the PDF file was waiting for me in my inbox?! After I was over my shock of such quick service, I planned on popping into Staples the next morning to have our tree printed. And print they did. If I ever need any type of graphics work done, I’ll be sure to contact that Etsy seller again and have it printed at Staples!

The green bowl you see is one of Bubba’s Goodwill finds, the pen holder is a crystal vase my mother gave me for Christmas. And the verse in the frame…

Is my father’s favorite verse:

“But they that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 43:31

And above that, I hung an airplane from Dad’s collection. Since my father passed away several years ago, it was so very important to me to have an element of Dad incorporated into the celebration.

After everyone had signed the tree and oohed and ahhed over my flower arrangements and pom-poms (not really) it was time to eat!

On the menu was smoked pork loin, potato salad, pasta salad, and bbq’ed beans. And for dessert, cupcakes in three flavors: chocolate, carrot, and vanilla. Along with oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip and lemon cookies. I also threw in some brownies for good measure. You can’t have a party without some cavity inducing sweets!

(If I had thought to take some shots of the food, you would find those photos here. Instead I’ll share shots of everyone enjoying the festive feast.)

All of the sides and desserts I picked up at the grocery store, but not after visiting two different grocery stores the morning of the party. Being the scatter brained little party planner I am, I had forgotten which store I’d ordered the cupcakes from! Thankfully, the sweet ladies at the first grocery store were ever so helpful and called each Albertson’s in the area until we located the right store. That saved me so much time and frustration!

Unfortunately, that was not the only sweat inducing obstacle of the day. But I plan on dedicating an entire post to that story. Let’s just say it involved law enforcement, the fire department, and a very sleepy April.

All in all, the party was a success. Both Bubba and I enjoyed sharing our home with friends and family. Our guests enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. My fears of cops coming in and breaking up the party, or angry neighbors calling said cops to break up the party were all unfounded. Everyone enjoyed themselves, there was lots of good food, and lots of good company. That’s really what a party is all about anyways right?

Both Bubba and I are so very thankful for the guests and all those sweet people that helped out. Those that helped in the set up and those that helped us take it all down, and for those who simply graced us with their presence. I know a lot of our guests traveled from far and near and sacrificed money and time to be in attendance. Not only am I thankful for our sweet guests, I’m also thankful for local law enforcement who saved our house from being burnt down (again, that’s for another post), and for the sweet ladies at Albertson’s that saved me time that I didn’t have.

Before I sound like an actress tearfully accepting an award and thanking all those that ever “spared a square” (thousand points to anyone who can guess which television show that’s from!), let’s share some advice. To all of you who are planning a backyard party or any type of event at your home, if someone offers to help, take them up on it. Yes, you can do it yourself, but do you really have time? The answer is a loud and resounding NO.

Between landscaping the yard, scrubbing the kitchen, and pulling Bubba’s dirty socks out from underneath the couch I had no time. There was hardly enough time to buy the food and other party supplies, design and mail the invitations (which by the way were not mailed until 3 weeks before the party!), plan on the decor (I forgot to put lighting up, instead of the cozy romantic evening I had planned on, we ended up with a dark and spooky evening), or have an impeccably clean or at least moderately clean home (There were parts of my home that were used to stash clutter and other I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with items while in my mad frantic rush to clean two hours before the party. I just know some of my guests saw what horrid conditions my washer and dryer live in!). Aside from those things, relax , enjoy your guests and all of your hard work! And remember, cupcakes can be tracked down, fires can be put out, but memories cannot be remade.

Slacking

Posted on August 18, 2011 by April

My slackerdom has finally cast its ugly net onto my blogging habits now. Today I realized it’s been nearly a month since my last post! There’s got to be some sort of cure for this slackery. It’s even reached it’s craggly cold hand into my photo editing, as I am still working on editing all the photos for the much awaited and talked about party post. But rest assured, that is coming very soon!

The lack of posts doesn’t mean that Bubba and I have been sitting around twiddling our thumbs, or that I haven’t been snapping copious amounts of dog photos (believe me, my furkids run when they see that huge black clicky box). It just means that I’ve been too preoccupied enjoying the summer. There’s been too many fun things to do out and about rather than sitting at home typing away at my laptop. Even with all those great and spectacular things that have been keeping me away from my beloved blog, it was high time to come back for a little RR in my cozy net cottage.

So pull up a virtual chair and grab a glass of virtual lemonade and cozy up on my virtual front porch for a photo story of what we’ve been up to these days.

Like observing the local wildlife. Be very quiet, the native Annie dogs are grazing.

Notice how intently my Golden girl is still observing the grazing Annie. This is what the evening dog outings entail. Run, eat grass, run, watch other dog eat grass, repeat as needed.

This tail, although it may look harmless, has caused the demise of many a milk glass vase. But isn’t it beautiful?

Aside from observing grazing Annie’s and avoiding happy dog tails, there’s also been other wildlife to enjoy. I’ve got a pair of praying mantis’ living in the front flower bed.

Annie loves to observe Bubba in his natural habitat, the couch, with a Sponge Bob Square Pants Gameboy.

Sometimes the observing pays off, and you get a new frisbee.

A tail wagging new Frisbee.

And a tail wagging and sniff inducing chew bone.

Also crazy eye inducing bone.

After the new toys had been sufficiently chewed, torn, and otherwise played with, it was time for an evening drive. Goldie loves car rides.

Annie not so much.

But once one has arrived at one’s destination, it’s all business. SNIFF SNIFF

We take our walks seriously around here.

We also take our sunsets seriously. And I mean seriously, is God a great artist or what? He creates a beautiful sunset for us to be blessed with every evening. And they are all different. I hear sunrises are just as awe-inducing, someday I will wake up early enough to enjoy the beautiful sunrise our Lord has made for us….someday.

All that running and chasing and picture-taking calls for a special treat. How about some peach cobbler? Bubba made this from fresh peaches, baked in his new vintage Fire King dish.

Here’s what it looked like a couple of days later.

We may or may not have had cobbler for dinner one night this week, and it may or may not have been eaten straight from the casserole dish. And my jeans may or may not have screamed out in agony.

After all that cobbler it’s time to snuggle up on the couch with your sweetie.

That pretty much sums up the goings on at Casa de Yellow. We have been slacking on some of our chores, but certainly not on our enjoyment of summer.

Lazy Days of Summer

Posted on July 21, 2011 by April

If you haven’t guessed, our belated wedding/ house warming party is now over, done, finito! Honestly, I wasn’t sure if we would all make it to the other side alive, the preparation, the work, the stress, the sleepless nights, (did I mention the stress?) all seemed to take its toll. But surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, we made it, and we can now relax and revel in the fact that we have our spare time back. We no longer need to spend our weekends moving rocks or scrubbing the bathroom. That is, there are no chores or projects on a deadline any longer. Unless the bathroom is starting to turn green and fuzzy, then we are definitely on a deadline to kill that green germ-y beast!

All this talk of having no time for fun makes it sound like I did everything on my own, but that’s far from the truth. I know without a shadow of a doubt that things never would have gone so smoothly without the help of our family and friends. From set up to tear down, our sweet loved ones were there! My aunt and uncle from Ohio even flew down for the party! I never felt so loved. My poor sweet mother came over 3 times in one week! That’s asking a lot when you consider there is 81 miles ,one way mind you, between my house and her house. She must really love this little party planner!

By the way this little party planner would love to share lots of great artistic photos, but alas, she was much too busy making sure everyone had a place to sit and food to eat. But now that the dust has settled, I really wish I had taken the time to document more of what we ate, and how things looked. Especially, now that I have had the chance to think about how much time went into those things. But really, I got some nice snapshots of all our sweet guests, which is much more important than the food or the decor. Maybe I can sweet talk some of our guests into sharing the shots they were able to capture while Bubba and I were busy hosting. *Hint Hint*

In the mean time, here’s what we’ve been doing with all of our free time…

Enjoying our messy house, which has been cleaned up a bit since these pictures were taken. I can only handle a disheveled kitchen for so long.

All those glasses on the table are from the party. I insisted on using real glasses, even though I had to buy them behind Bubba’s back! He wanted to use all plastic ware as it doesn’t need to be washed which is a valid point. But I just couldn’t bring myself to seeing red plastic cups on my pretty tables. So, the morning of I ducked out to get some last-minute items, one of which was the real glasses you see here. Purchased from the dollar store, a box of 16 for $8 , not a bad deal if you ask me. However, upon my return home with my purchase, Bubba’s only remark about the glasses that we will surely reuse, “Well, your washing them after the party!” Thankfully, Bubba’s sweet aunts must have sensed the tension and took the initiative and washed all of them when I wasn’t looking! Marrying into a huge family, with 8 new aunts, certainly has it’s benefits! Thanks to my new aunts-in law!!!

Aside from dodging dish washing, I decided that after three months of having dirt under my nails, it was high time to do something girly and relaxing. So I went and got a mani-pedi. The poor lady that had to sand off my hooves, wasn’t quite as relaxed. But she got a good tip for putting up with my nasty hooves and dirty finger nails. I love being a girl again!

I’m not the only one relaxing these days, no Bubba didn’t go with me to get a mani/pedi. The doggies must have gotten tired watching all the work, this was the scene on our sofa the day after…

{By the way, I have some posts coming about my new gallery wall, which by the way will be relocated, and my new living room paint color!}

A couple days after the party, my mom was back in town to drop off my sweet aunt and uncle at the airport. As always, the puppies were oh so excited to see her. Especially Goldie…

My golden girl refused to release my mother from the ultimate snuggle…

There came a time in the middle that all my poor mother could do was grin and bear it.

When we weren’t napping on the sofa or terrorizing our guests with the never ending snuggle, we all enjoyed a nice sunset stroll…

There’s nothing like kickin’ back and watching the sunset…

This was our view…

Sunset strolls make some of us very happy…

However, some of us prefer trolling the internet for good deals…

Sunset walks are fun and call for a butt wiggle at the mention of them, (yes, sometimes I participate in the excited butt wiggle) but watching the neighborhood from the comfort of your own home is priceless…

Before my aunt and uncle had to head back to the Buckeye state, my mom and I got to grab some precious time with my aunt at Goodwill. I love watching sisters shop, especially when they both have such flowery personalities (notice the floral theme). See, much like other families, in mine we tend to have similar styles and tastes. At least for the women in my family, I really can’t see my uncle wearing a pink shirt with white flowers.

Since, I don’t have a lot of party pictures to share yet, I will give you a sneak peek of what I do have. Some of these were taken after the fact, others were taken as a practice run before the party. Example, the beautiful pork loin that my sweet husband made the week before.

Here we have my tissue pom-poms, this was taken a week after the party so you will have to excuse it’s droopiness. I made at least ten of these guys in yellow, white, and green. Our theme was lemon and lime, I just love the way yellow and green just go together perfectly. If you are interested in making your own pom-poms please visit my good friend Martha Stewart here.

I also hung yellow and white battery operated lanterns in my little tree. Most of them came from an online store, but I picked up a few extra white lanterns at the dollar store. I found the dollar store lanterns were much brighter and held a battery charge much longer than my special order lanterns.

I had lots of color hanging from my tree with the pom-poms and lanterns, but I also wanted color on my tables. Enter my bazillion and twenty yellow flowers, I was able to use all 16 of my vintage milk glass bud vases! It was an exciting time.

And we’ve gotten to enjoy these cheerful guys long after the party.

I’ll end on the most important aspect of throwing a party, the food!! Here is the practice pork loin that Bubba smoked the week before. Isn’t it pretty, and he even achieved the much sought after pink ring, which means it was smoked perfectly, not that it’s raw! Which was my first inclination when my sweet husband proudly proclaimed the perfection that is the pink ring. At least when it comes to smoked pork.

I have a story to tell about the smoking meat the morning of the party. But since I am at 1, 326 words now I’ll end with a few words of advice. When having a party at your home, hire out as many home improvement professionals as possible, hire a maid, and be sure the fire department is on speed dial!

This is love…

Posted on April 26, 2011 by April

^“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15: 3-4

Thank you Jesus for suffering on the cross and bearing the cost of the sins that I could not pay. How blessed it is, on the third day that You rose again! Thank you for the hope and the salvation that your sacrifice brought humanity. And for forgiving me, a humble sinner who has found life in Christ. It is only through You that we can be saved, and that we can truly know what love is.

Bearizona

Posted on April 14, 2011 by April

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Bubba and I have been out of town, and frantically trying to get the house and yard together. (Remember, we are planning a belated backyard wedding reception this summer. At our house, that is currently a dusty hot mess!) With two dogs and two jobs, and only two sets of hands, it can be challenging to get our projects done. And even harder for this little shutter bug to pull out her camera and document all of the work done and the miles traveled. Or maybe it’s just that we’re two lazy procrastinators that plan on putting everything off until the last minute. Let’s go with busy….

My sweetheart and I, mainly I, thought it was time to head out of town for a little adventure. So we left our brat dogs ,Annie and Goldie, with Grandma (aka my mother, by the way, she really hates being called Grandma to a couple of rotten muttlys!) And set out to see the Grand Canyon, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world!

Along the way we saw…

Teepee’s…

At the Wigwam Motel…

And classic cars…this one was Bubba’s favorite.

And I got to meet a celebrity!

Tow Mater! I couldn’t get his autograph, he was having a hard time holding the Sharpie.

After that, the weather turned cold and we didn’t make many more stops until we got to Williams AZ, which according to their welcome sign is, “The Gateway to the Grand Canyon”. They should be paying me for this promotion ya know 😉

Upon arriving in Williams, AZ (the gateway to the Grand Canyon) high’s were in the mid 40’s and it was too late to visit the Canyon that evening. So off to bed we went, with dreams of hiking and ohhing and awing over the giant hole (not the one in my head, but the natural wonder of the world). But not before touring the little town of Williams.

This church was super cute, I love old churches.

And we visited Bearizona,I didn’t really get to see what this was about, but seeing all the beary good billboards (sorry, I can’t resist a good pun!), I at least wanted to stop and take a picture of the gate.

And the sign…

Doesn’t it look like he’s holding his paw out for your cash?

The next day, we woke to snow, lots and lots of snow. The nice people over at the Weather Channel predicted an accumulation of 10 to 15 in that afternoon and into the night, and very low visibility. Meaning, that a trip to the canyon would just be a nice view of clouds and fog. That’s when Bubba and I decided it was time to move south, to Phoenix.

We had hoped for warm sunny weather once we drove the 2 1/2 hours from Phoenix to Flagstaff, and that’s just what we found our first afternoon there. However, the next morning we woke up to rain and cold. Not exactly what we had in mind. But on the bright side, we did get to stay in luxury suite, at least it was luxurious to small town folk like Bubba and I.

We had a balcony! I’ve never stayed in a hotel with a balcony before, here’s our view, not very glamorous, but it sure beat the brick wall we’d had the night before…

And our own hot tub, now that’s something I could live with…

Since it was cold and rainy, I was able to talk my Bubba into taking me to a magical place I had only heard about in the blogosphere….IKEA! We don’t have one in our neck of the woods, so it was the highlight of the trip for me.

I’ll have to do a post about all the loot I found, after seeing the cost of shipping, I really wish I had spent a little more time shopping.

After visiting the mecca of all that is good and cheap, we were ready to fill our bellies. We’d heard about In-n-Out Burger, and since it was another stop that isn’t found here in the Duke City, we gave it the ole college try.

Cheap, fast, presentation was lovely, but not something I’d be craving in the near future.

After we were in-n-out of In-n-Out, it was time to look for the AZ State Capital building. No such luck, but I did get some nice shots of these yellow trees that I just fell in love with, you can also see them from the balcony of the hotel. Wonder what they are…

Here’s a close up…

After getting lost numerous times, we decided it was time to head home. To give you an idea of what the trip home was like, here are some shots I took along the way.

See those snow covered mountains? We ended up driving over those!

This was taken just outside of Gallup,what’s that white stuff you ask? Yeah, that’s snow. And yes, I am a wimp when it comes to that stuff. By the way, the roads got icey right after I took this picture. I was too scared to take a shot of the ice. And yes, again I’m a wimp.

Thanks for being kind and sitting through my version of a vacation slide show! This will be the last for a while, so you won’t have to worry about avoiding eye contact to keep from hearing about my travel escapades.

Green and Spring all over

Posted on March 31, 2011 by April

March to me means, green and lots of it. Maybe it’s that certain holiday that requires most of us to wear green lest we suffer the pinchie consequences, or it could be all the green that’s popping up in the emergence of last years dafodlis and iris bulbs.

Or the FRUITING Mulberry tree in the backyard. Yup, fruiting, which means we have mushy mulberries littering our walkways during the summer months. Yummy but messy.

The rose bush is sorta coming back, I hope the ole girl didn’t completely freeze over the frigid winter.

Hopefully soon I’ll have some green grass to show you, but if you are interested, tales of our grass growing saga can be found here and here. Here’s Bubba sowing the seed…

Is that a sprout?

By the way we have the little fence up to keep the brat dogs out of our grass experiment. It’s not working…

Here’s to hoping for lots more green in the coming months!!

P.S. I am linking up the the monthly color story over at Pancakes and French Fries. This month the color was shades of yellow, but I cheated and decided to switch April and March (I’m a rebel like that!). Now, here at my casa/blog March will be emerald and April will be yellow. Sorry Jules, hope you forgive me!

I Heart February

Posted on March 1, 2011 by April

February brought many things, first of all a Valentine’s Day celebrated with my husband. Our very first V-day spent as Mr. and Mrs. April (yeah, Bubba hates that one). He brought me these lovelies to celebrate…

Then we took a stroll downtown…

Fur to cover your Hide anyone??

How about a pint of Glorietta Beer?

After all that hide covering and beer drinking you’ll probably want to take a nap on your Supreme Bedding.

And after your nap, you can wake up and enjoy a beautiful sunset…

I hope February brought you many pleasant strolls, happy naps, and pretty sunsets to enjoy!

I am participating in a Color Story Linky Party over at

Pancakes and French Fries. Please join the fun!

Colors of Winter…

Posted on February 4, 2011 by April

For nearly a year now, I’ve been blog stalking. Stalking fashion blogs, DIY blogs, designer blogs, food blogs, photography blogs, blogs about blogs. I’ve grown quite an affection for the blog. That’s why I started this silly little blog back in May, I needed a blog home. A place to come back and covet others blogs. You know the ones, with pretty pictures and pretty words, with proper grammar and witty comments, and no run-on sentences. I know it’s wrong to covet, but I can’t help myself when it comes to other peoples beautiful blogs.

One of my favorite covet worthy blogs is Pancakes and French Fries. This lady is hilarious, and beautiful to boot. ( Heh heh, I can’t say boot without thinking of Robin from “How I met your Mother”, a-BOOT). She’s recently started a series of color stories on her blog home, and has invited her blog friends, and I’m hoping blog stalkers, to partake in this project. And in keeping with one of my many New Years resolutions, I’ve decided to step out from behind my blog “stalkiness” and participate.

For January, Ms. Jules, chose grays and creams and pretty much anything that could be found on a cold winter day. So, I’ve done my best to find subjects that were gray-ish and creamy and sort of winter-y. I will be a copycat for my first color story, and present this puppy in journal/story form.

In January…

We got married. (Well actually, we got married at the end of December, but it was close enough to January I thought I’d include it.)